Pat Bertram is the author of the suspense novels Light Bringer, Daughter Am I, More Deaths Than One, and A Spark of Heavenly Fire. Bertram is also the author of Grief: The Great Yearning, “an exquisite book, wrenching to read, and at the same time full of profound truths.”

I’m wondering if every author needs to take voice-over training. Especially if they want to record their works in audio formats.

Readers like hearing the author read. Right? They know that only the author really understands the nuances of each sentence, the way it was supposed to be said aloud. I do believe this, and wish I could download books read by Dean Koontz himself, or that John D. MacDonald could come down from Heaven for a while to record his Travis MacGee series for us. Wouldn’t that be cool?

When you’re reading from your own character’s point of view, you really have to get inside his head. You have to feel his pain, suffer his humiliations, and share in his joy.

Could you do that? If so, it’s a good sign that you really know your characters.

And what do you do if your character is of the opposite sex? I guess unless you’re a woman with a very deep voice, or a man who does a reasonable falsetto, you’ve got to find someone who fits that mold, a friend who can sound like your character and really get inside his or her brain.

Would you like to get to know a character, even before you read his book?

Well, I never took acting lessons, but I sat in the back of the auditorium while my daughter performed in fifteen musicals and plays. Maybe a little of the training rubbed off on me. I don’t know.

Regardless, I figured it was a good idea to help create a little buzz for my debut book in my new green marble series by writing a letter from Sam Moore to his future readers. Would you like to hear it? See what you think and please let me know, below.

Sam Moore’s most intimate and tortured thoughts are in this video. It’s not really a normal video, but the only way to get audio on YouTube or other sites is to put a jpeg image behind it and save it as a movie file. ;o) Took me all day to figure that out – shows you how bright I am. And I didn’t want to make it into a book trailer, for Heaven’s sake. I already have one of those!

Sam Moore is a retired country doctor in the new paranormal mystery series, Moore Mysteries. The first book just came out via Twilight Times Books, and you can read the first few chapters here: Healey’s Cave .

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Aaron Paul Lazar writes to soothe his soul. The author of LeGarde Mysteries and Moore Mysteries enjoys the Genesee Valley countryside in upstate New York, where his characters embrace life, play with their dogs and grandkids, grow sumptuous gardens, and chase bad guys. Visit his websites at www.legardemysteries.com and www.mooremysteries.com and watch for his upcoming release, FIRESONG, coming Winter, 2010.

If you wish a character to be interviewed by Pat Bertram, please answer fifteen to twenty questions from the Character Questionaire Page and submit them in the comment section along with whatever links you’d like included. Be sure to answer in your character’s voice, and be sure you mention the title of the book and who wrote it. If an answer to a question is yes or no, please explain why. (Example: Do you run away from conflict? Yes. Why? I don’t like fighting. See, there was this time in third grade where I got in a fight and . . .) Feel free to include your own questions. The character interviewed does not have to be the hero. Even if you don’t want your character interviewed, you can ask your characters these questions to help you profile them.

What is your story?

Who are you?

Where do you live?

Are you the hero of your own story?

What is your problem in the story?

Do you have a problem the wasn’t mentioned in the story?

Do you embrace conflict?

Do you run from conflict?

How do you see yourself?

How do your friends see you?

How do your enemies see you?

How does the author see you?

Do you think the author portrayed you accurately?

What do you think of yourself?

Do you have a hero?

Do you have a goal?

What are your achievements?

Do you talk about your achievements?

Do you keep your achievements to yourself?

Do you have any special strengths?

Do you have any special weaknesses?

Do you have any skills?

Do you have money troubles?

What do you want?

What do you need?

What do you want to be?

What do you believe?

What makes you happy?

What are you afraid of?

What makes you angry?

What makes you sad?

What do you regret?

What is your biggest disappointment?

What, if anything, haunts you?

Are you lucky?

Have you ever failed at anything?

Has anyone ever failed you?

Has anyone ever betrayed you?

Have you ever failed anyone?

Have you ever betrayed anyone?

Do you keep your promises?

Are you honorable?

Are you healthy?

Do you have any handicaps?

Do you have any distinguishing marks?

What was your childhood like?

Do you like remembering your childhood?

Did anything newsworthy happen on the day you were born?

Did you get along with your parents?

What in your past had the most profound effect on you?

What in your past would you like to forget?

What in your past would you like others to forget?

Who was your first love?

Who is your true love?

Have you ever had an adventure?

What is the most important thing that ever happened to you? Why?

Was there a major turning point in your life?

Was there ever a defining moment of your life?

Is there anything else about your background you’d like to discuss?

What is your most closely guarded secret?

What is your most prized possession? Why?

Do you have any hobbies?

What is your favorite scent? Why?

What is your favorite color? Why?

What is your favorite food? Why?

What is your favorite beverage? Why?

What is your favorite music? Why?”

What is your favorite item of clothing? Why?

Name five items in your purse, briefcase, or pockets.

What are the last five entries in your check registry?

What are the last three books you read?

If you were at a store now, what ten items would be in your shopping cart?

If you had the power to change one thing in the world that didn’t affect you personally, what would it be?

What makes you think that change would be for the better?

If you were stranded on a desert island, would you rather be stranded with, a man or a woman?

Books by Pat Bertram

Available online wherever books and ebooks are sold.

Grief: The Great Yearning is not a how-to but a how-done, a compilation of letters, blog posts, and journal entries Pat Bertram wrote while struggling to survive her first year of grief. This is an exquisite book, wrenching to read, and at the same time full of profound truths.

When twenty-five-year-old Mary Stuart learns she inherited a farm from her recently murdered grandparents -- grandparents her father claimed had died before she was born -- she becomes obsessed with finding out who they were and why someone wanted them dead.

In quarantined Colorado, where hundreds of thousands of people are dying from an unstoppable, bio-engineered disease, investigative reporter Greg Pullman risks everything to discover the truth: Who unleashed the deadly organism? And why?

Bob Stark returns to Denver after 18 years in SE Asia to discover that the mother he buried before he left is dead again. At her new funeral, he sees . . . himself. Is his other self a hoaxer, or is something more sinister going on?

Thirty-seven years after being abandoned on the doorstep of a remote cabin in Colorado, Becka Johnson returns to try to discover her identity, but she only finds more questions. Who has been looking for her all those years? And why are those same people interested in fellow newcomer Philip Hansen?